ifo index continues decline

By: Mona Dohle | 25 Aug 2016

The German ifo business confidence deteriorated again throughout August, German think-tank ifo Institute reported.

Following a less than anticipated decline in July, the business climate index now dropped from 108.3 to 106.2 basis points. Expectations for the six month economic outlook also deteriorated from 102.1 to 100.1 basis points while the assessment of the current situation fell from 114.8 to 112.8.

The decline was most pronounced for the retail sector, where the assessment of the current climate fell from 10.2 to 2.5 basis points, the index for the wholesale sector dropped from 11.8 to 5.6 basis points, manufacturing declined from 9.7 to 6.3 basis points and the industrial sector from 9.6 to 5.6, the only sector which appeared to remain stable was the construction index, where the index for the current climate was at 5.4 basis points.

The monthly ifo index is based on reports from 7000 businesses across Germany.